WWF’s latest PPV offering in the United Kingdom, the Insurrextion show on 5/5 from Earl’s Court in London, which was broadcast both in the U.K. and strangely, Australia (where it aired live in the middle of the night) as well as in WWF New York (where almost nobody was there to watch it) drew mixed reviews.
The show drew a sellout 15,794 paying $840,054 in U.S. currency.
Like most of the U.K. only PPVs, it came across more like a house show but with some of the characters who don’t do house shows, such as Vince McMahon, doing their television shtick. In the U.K., the American PPV shows air for free on television, and there is becoming more and more of a negative reaction to the shows now that they’ve done enough that they are no longer a novelty. U.K. fans complain the shows don’t have major title changes or affect the storyline while being sold for the equivalent of $20 (a price increase for this show) while the big shows which do have those elements air free.
WWE COO Paul “HHH” Levesque took part in his traditional media call prior to NXT TakeOver Friday afternoon, discussing more of the happenings and inner workings in the promotion while not actually touching on the event itself that much.
While the audio is below, here’s a few key talking points:
– He was asked a lot about the creation of the NXT North American championship, why he doesn’t believe there’s a lineage to the past North American titles, and how the title is a “long term strategy/expansion play” similar to how the UK Championship is.
– He was asked about whether a secondary women’s title could be in the future.
– He discussed the mentality behind the timing on call-ups to the main roster.
– He gave his thoughts on the “piggybacking” of other shows/promotion during WrestleMania week.
– He was asked about his insight on how certain talents like Elias, Braun Strowman, and Mandy Rose really don’t do much on the NXT level but get the big break at the WWE level.
– He discussed the recent influx of MMA talent in NXT, WWE, and even indie promotions.
In what may have been the swan song of the promotion, ECW promised a “holy shit” surprise, which prompted debates over methods of promotion today as well as if there is any future left with the company in the wake of losing its New York television, cancelling next month’s PPV and not even producing a new TV show in the go-home week before a PPV show.
Guilty as Charged on 1/7 before a sellout crowd of 2,500 fans at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York was the usual ECW show. It came across, with the exception of the return of Rob Van Dam, as more of a regular house show than anything special on PPV. Everyone worked hard. There were some booking holes that were gigantic (if Francine won’t sleep with Corino or Credible unless they are wearing the belt, why is, at the end of the show, she sleeping with both of them when they both failed to win the belt?) but good or bad, and it was more good than bad, that news paled in comparison to the big news.
The WWF’s final PPV event of its biggest year was sold as a one match card, and even after buying the show, most of the first two hours of the show came across more like an ad to buy a show already purchased. After a flat undercard, where nothing was terribly bad but nothing was particularly good, that dragged at times because of too much hype that would have best been served being on Sunday Night Heat, the main event finally took place.
As good as anyone’s expectations of the Hell in the Cell match with six-men, this turned out much better, to the point it may have been the WWF’s best match of a year that had a lot of strong PPV main events. While the match patterning is getting similar (Wrestler A does finisher on B and C saves, then D does finisher on C and A saves, etc.) in these multiple man matches, the wrestlers are getting enough experience that the usual clusters that resulted from them are no longer the case.
The rapidly changing world of wrestling changed once again, as a Steve Austin vs. HHH main event at Survivor Series didn’t end with a pinfall in the ring, but with a forklift dropping a car, purported to be with HHH inside, theoretically to a Wile E. Coyote like catastrophe (where the victim should be dead, but will, of course live to see another day).
The angle, largely to explain HHH taking some time off to rest his back and hip injuries, kept HHH’s unusual streak alive of having done no pinfall jobs in singles matches on PPV to anyone other than the Rock since 1996 in a situation under normal circumstances one would have expected him to lose.
Overall, the 11/19 show at the Ice Palace in Tampa was something of a routine show. It was somewhat mixed received, largely with criticism of the ending of the main event, even though generally speaking everyone was impressed with the workrate involved.
To close out this week’s international tour, the Raw roster was at Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium in New Delhi, India for a house show today. Jinder Mahal, The Singh Brothers, Jeet Rama, and Kishan Raftar also appeared, with Mahal taking on Triple H in the main event.
– Some videos played on the screen before the show started, with the crowd popping for the “Woken” Matt Hardy scene from Raw and John Cena clips. Mike Rome was the host for the show and a recorded welcome video from Kurt Angle played.
– Finn Balor defeated Bray Wyatt
Balor got a tremendous pop despite some of the crowd not having reached their seats by the time this started. Wyatt got a huge pop as well, including everyone doing the fireflies bit for his entrance.
Wyatt stalled and escaped the ring a lot, then Balor got on the mic and told him to get back in. Balor eventually won with the Coup de Grace. This was a good opener with an invested crowd.
– Jeet Rama & Kishan Raftar defeated Curtis Axel & Bo Dallas
Rama and Raftar, who are Performance Center trainees from India, got a mild reaction. You could hear the crowd’s disappointment when they realized The Miztourage were on the show instead of The Miz.
They had a pretty basic match with no heat until the last two minutes, with Raftar hitting a stunner and Rama using a German suplex throw into a half nelson for the pin. There was a mild pop for the finish.
– Raw Women’s Champion Alexa Bliss defeated Sasha Banks to retain her title
Both got good reactions, and this was a solid match. There were dueling chants, but they seemed to be leaning towards Bliss. Banks used the Banks Statement at one point before Bliss got to the ropes. Bliss retained with a roll-up while grabbing the tights.
– Jason Jordan defeated Elias
Elias sang a song before this started, dissing India and getting tremendous heat. Jordan got a big pop when his entrance theme interrupted him. There were “Who’s your daddy?” chants directed at Jordan, along with “Elias sucks” chants for Elias. Jordan also got some Kurt Angle-style “You suck” chants.
Elias targeted Jordan’s arm before working on his knee, then Jordan won with a roll-up. That was a flat ending to a match that was slowly becoming good.
– The Shield (Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins & Dean Ambrose) defeated Samoa Joe, Cesaro & Sheamus
Indian actor Varun Dhawan was the celebrity ring announcer. Joe got a great reaction, Cesaro and Sheamus got a good one, and The Shield got the biggest of the show thus far. There were chants for The Shield all around.
The match had lots of fast action. Joe was cheered but Cesaro and Sheamus were booed, with the crowd telling Sheamus he looks stupid. The audience chanted that they wanted Reigns, though there were some dueling chants.
Rollins “hulked up” at one point, hitting a big boot and leg drop. That caused the people to chant for Hulk Hogan. Reigns got a huge pop when he finally tagged in. Rollins and Ambrose hit their finishers on Sheamus, Reigns hit a spear on Joe, and they used The Shield powerbomb on Cesaro for the finish. There was a great response for the finish at the end of a great match. It also got lots of “This is awesome” chants.
– Apollo Crews & Titus O’Neil defeated Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson
The audience was disinterested during their entrances. The match was pretty basic and the crowd was dead for it, with them only responding to Crews’ big spots and the finish. O’Neil pinned Anderson after hitting the Clash of the Titus.
– WWE Cruiserweight Champion Enzo Amore defeated Kalisto to retain his title
Everyone did Amore’s shtick until he turned on them and said India sucks. Kalisto got a nice response, including everyone doing the “Lucha” chant.
Kalisto put on Amore’s wig merchandise to mock him. There was lots of stalling, but the crowd enjoyed it. For the finish, Amore distracted the referee, poked Kalisto in the eye, and hit Eat Defeat.
– Braun Strowman defeated Kane by DQ
Both got huge pops. The match was short and lame until the disqualification. They threw each other into the steps, with Kane about to hit Strowman with them and get disqualified before he stopped. Kane got out a table and hit Strowman with a chair for the DQ.
They had a brawl that ended with Strowman powerslamming Kane through the table. The crowd loved the brawl despite there not being much to the match.
– Triple H defeated Jinder Mahal (w/ The Singh Brothers)
The Singh Brothers came out to a good reaction and introduced Mahal. There was a huge pop for Mahal, with him wearing a custom robe that was designed by Narendra Kumar (who is famous in India). Triple H got an enormous pop, even bigger than the one Mahal received. There were chants for him, though there was also a huge “CM Punk” chant for some reason after the ring introductions and before the bell rang.
There were dueling chants for Mahal and Triple H once the match started, but they were louder for Triple H. He bumped around at the start before both did headlocks for a few minutes. The match picked up from there, with them trading strikes and Mahal giving Triple H the Figure Four leglock. There were “This is awesome” chants for the match at this point.
Triple H attacked The Singh Brothers during a brawl at ringside. People were going crazy and there were lots of good exchanges in the ring. Triple H hit the Pedigree, but Mahal kicked out. They fought outside before coming back in. Mahal hit a superkick, but Triple H used another Pedigree to win.
This was below the Mahal vs. AJ Styles title match, but it was better than all of Mahal’s matches against Randy Orton and Shinsuke Nakamura. It went over 20 minutes and both put in a damn good effort.
After the match, Triple H got on the mic and called Mahal back into the ring. He said Mahal has many critics and haters with no reason to hate, but he has earned Triple H’s respect and India is in good hands with him. They shook hands and Triple H raised Mahal’s arm.
Mahal thanked Triple H, then Triple H got him and the Singhs to dance. They danced to Mahal’s theme for a few minutes until they finally got Triple H to join in, which got a huge pop. Triple H ended it by hitting a Pedigree on one of the Singhs and smiling as he headed to the back. Mahal thanked everyone in Hindi to close the show.
NXT TakeOver War Games roars into Houston, Texas’ Toyota Center Saturday with a main event featuring the return of a WCW-created classic: the double cage War Games match.
On Thursday, Paul “Triple H” Levesque talked to the media for 35 minutes about the show and a few other key topics of interest:
– He discussed why they are bringing back the War Games concept now after a few decades sitting on the shelf. He also revealed that there will be no roof on the top of the cages as they felt it was limiting to the talent.
– He went into detail about what the upcoming TV tapings at Center Stage in Atlanta means for their future at Full Sail University.
– He talked about the potential of working with Kurt Angle in the future.
– He talked about the women’s roster, how UK talent like Pete Dunne could be used in the future, and lots more.
The WWE switched around the Survivor Series show this past week, adding HHH to the Raw team, changing the Smackdown women’s title and officially adding The Shield vs. The New Day.
The original lineup had looked lackluster, but changes done were for the better, particularly long-term.
HHH will replace Jason Jordan on the Raw team, which seemed to open the door for a Jordan heel turn, as well as a HHH vs. Kurt Angle confrontation that had been talked about as the end game for Angle ever since his return.
The 11/19 show at the Toyota Center in Houston is headlined by a Raw vs. Smackdown elimination match with HHH & Angle & Samoa Joe & Finn Balor & Braun Strowman vs. Shane McMahon & John Cena & Randy Orton & Bobby Roode & Shinsuke Nakamura.
While a lot of ticket sales of late have been soft, and Brooklyn couldn’t sell out anything but SummerSlam when they had four straight dates in August, there are almost no primary tickets remaining for not only Survivor Series, but also for both Raw and Smackdown, at the Toyota Center, over the next two days.
With NXT TakeOver: Chicago coming your way Saturday on WWE Network, Paul “HHH” Levesque held his traditional media call prior to the event Friday morning.
On the call, Levesque hit on:
– The card itself
– What’s on the line for Hideo Itami with a poorly received performance
– Updates on Tommaso Ciampa’s ankle injury
– The return of Drew McIntyre and how it’s similar to what Jinder Mahal did
– Updates on the NXT women’s tournament
– The potential for a women’s referee in NXT
– Thoughts on Friday’s WWE UK show with Tyler Bate, Pete Dunne, and their future in the company
– Jim Ross’ return to the company and his involvement with the UK product
– How Roderick Strong is adapting to the company, the recent videos on his background, and his future
– What the next market is that they are looking at expanding to next
Unlike most other wrestlers of similar fame, to do a career retrospective on Mick Foley is best saved for an examination probably years down the road.
He was the classic overachiever, who defied all the odds, and was possibly the single greatest influence inside the ring on styles changing in the business of the past ten years. In a career destined, because he wasn’t that great athletically and didn’t have what was believed to be the right look and physique, for being mid-card for life, he ended up when his career came to a close, as one of the five biggest stars in North America, and even as a best-selling author. In the end, he went out, with the glory but without the storyline ego, putting over the world champion twice on PPV in his own specialty matches, and even in a tag match on television and in every angle over the final weeks of his career. Hunter Hearst Helmsley long since earned his spot as the top heel in the industry today, but if he is remembered some day as one the top heels in history, he owes a lot of it to the credibility Foley gave him these last two months. In many ways, from hard work, to unselfishness about making others look good, to being a student of the game and probably truly loving pro wrestling more than nearly anyone else, enough to give his body, and perhaps parts of his brain, to it willingly and happily, whether big money was involved or not, and not for the selfish glory of bragging about scars in the bar to get over to nobody, but more to satisfy his own vision of what he wanted his role in something greater to him, this business, to be, he should be admired like few if any wrestlers of our generation.
Submitted by reader Nick Scapine / Image: @TripleH
– Big Cass (w/Enzo) def. Jinder Mihal
Enzo was up to his usual antics outside the ring. This was extremely similar to televised matches with throwaway slam, splash, Empire Elbow, and the big boot finish for the Cass win. Crowd was into the finishing sequence.
– WWE Cruiserweight Champion Neville def. Rich Swann to retain
Very slow pace to start. Neville did a lot of crowd work to generate heat. Pace picked up as Swann got some offense in including a top rope hurricanrana and a dive to the outside. Neville fought back and went for a Superplex. Swann countered and forced Neville to flip out back to ring. Neville went down, clutching his knee and pounding the mat in pain. The ref checked on him and looked to be calling for the doc. As the ref is explaining the situation to Swann, Neville popped back to his feet, hit a monster super ick and submitted him to retain.
– Sasha Banks and Alicia Fox def. Nia Jax and Dana Brooke
Sasha got one of the bigger pops of the night, but the match wasn’t that good. A double dropkick from Banks and Fox clear the way for Sasha to apply the Banks
Statement to Brooke for the win.
– WWE Tag Team Champions Gallows & Anderson def. The New Day (Xavier and Big E) and Sheamus & Cesaro to retain
Cesaro went for the swing on Anderson but Gallows interfered. This sent everyone in the ring. Big E sent Gallows and Sheamus to the outside. Xavier did a dive over top to take them out. This provided enough distraction for Anderson to surprise Big E and record the pin using the ropes for leverage which the ref didn’t see.
After match, Anderson was hit with a Trouble In Paradise, the Big Swing, and a Brogue Kick before being tossed outside. New Day danced and wanted Cesaro and Sheamus to join them. Cesaro eventually did for a nice reaction. Sheamus tried to leave multiple times to avoid it but eventually gave in and gave everyone a good laugh with some dancing of his own. Big E lwas iterally rolling around the ring laughing.
– Brock Lesnar (w/Paul Heyman) def. Big Show
Lesnar came out to a big pop with Heyman. Goldberg chant broke out. Heyman cut a promo calling the city Boo-ffalo and made fun of their sports teams and weather. They issue an open challenge which Show answers to a good crowd reaction. It’s incredible how small Show makes Lesnar look. Show controlled early with some headbutts but Lesnar stayed on feet. He countered and lifted Show with ease for the F5 and quick win.
– WWE Raw Women’s Champion Bayley def. Charlotte to retain
This was an ok match, but nothing memorable. Lots of “whooo” chants during a chop exchange. Bayley hits the Bayley-to-belly out of nowhere for the win in a match that saw Charlotte fail to attempt the Figure 8.
– Roman Reigns def. Braun Stroman by DQ
Reigns got the loudest reaction of the night with the younger fans cheering and the older fans booing. Reigns hit two Superman punches but Stroman stayed on his feet even after a third. Reigns went for a spear and it looked like Braun had it countered into a pop up slam, but in mid-air Roman uncorked a Superman punch in one of the better sequences of the entire night.
This sent Strowman out of the ring to grab steel steps. He drilled Reigns with them, drawing the DQ. Reigns got tossed back in ring and Strowman brought the steps in with him. As he went to throw the steps at Reigns, he ate a monster spear for the biggest pop of the night. He hit one more spear for good measure before heading to the back.
– Finn Balor, Chris Jericho and Sami Zayn def. HHH, Samoa Joe and Kevin Owens
HHH’s entrance got the biggest reaction of the night. Jericho and Joe started, and had fun with Jerichos scarf as Joe insisted he take it off. Heels continued to rotate in and beat down on Zayn including HHH’s vintage running knee. Sami eventually got to Balor for the hot tag. He hit a couple short elbows on the run and then a sling blade which leads to the dropkick in the corner.
He hopped to the top rope for the finish but Owens knocked him off. Jericho came in and went for Walls Of Jericho on Owens, but HHH interfered. Jericho got HHH in the Walls briefly before Joe interfered. This kicked off the mayhem.
Jericho gets put in the Clutch which Zayn broke up with a helluva kick but turned around into a Pedigree. Balor then hit the sling blade and the Coup De Grace but just from the mat which HHH nearly oversold as he rolled out.
The ring cleared with Owens still standing but he turned around into a Codebreaker for the pinfall and the win.
In an interview with the Fox Sports’ Wrestling Compadres podcast, WWE COO Paul “HHH” Levesque confirmed that a WWE women’s tournament is happening this year, likely this summer.
The podcast aired a clip from the interview Wednesday with the full interview set to be released this Friday. You can listen below, starting at the 21:30 mark.
Subscribers to this site have known of these plans for quite some time, both from the Wrestling Observer Newsletter and Wrestling Observer Radio. Dave Meltzer originally reported the long-discussed tourney was tentatively earmarked for May on the WWE Network.
Levesque said that the difficult thing has been trying to find the right time for the tournament, given their current schedule and the ever-changing landscape of WWE. He mentioned the UK tournament fit perfectly prior to the Royal Rumble and that he is hoping the women’s tourney can happen this summer.
The plan is to recruit very similarly to the WWE Cruiserweight Classic where they “scour the globe” and find some talents that may be flying under the radar, increasing the talent pool for WWE as a whole.
Levesque was also asked about intergender matches and while he understands that they may work for some smaller groups as shock entertainment value, he didn’t think the WWE fanbase would be ready for a male to be seen beating up a woman in the ring. He prefers the women being able to stand out on their own athletic merits.
The one thing I can say for WWF Armageddon is, it was a weird show. When it was over, I couldn’t say that I liked or disliked it, and based on the response here, a lot of people has similar reactions.
Some of the undercard wrestling was decent. Nothing was particularly good. A few matches were pretty bad. But that’s to be expected both from the line-up, which didn’t promise on paper one good match, and from the WWF PPV undercards in general. If anything, the quality of the undercard looked to be lacking because its best undercard workers were all wasted in a Battle Royal setting.
The show was built around one match. As a “wrestling” match, it was terrible. Vince McMahon is not a wrestler. He put on a very good performance for a 54-year-old men (or 53, whatever) but it was way too long. For a match with that kind of build-up, it didn’t have much heat and reports we heard from those there live is that fans live hated the match, but with so much of the match outside the arena setting, it would be hard for the crowd to get into it. Hunter Hearst Helmsley hyperextended his knee during the practice session they went through earlier in the day, so one has to give him credit for basically carrying a non-worker for 30 minutes on a bad knee and making it at least watchable. This also explains why Raw was booked the next night to where Helmsley was put in a match that he actually never tagged into. At press time we never got a final word on Helmsley’s MRI which was done on 12/14 before the Raw show, but they were hopeful the injury wasn’t serious and that he’d be back able to actually wrestle a match by the time they go back on the road on 12/26. After the session, Helmsley spent hours icing and getting electrical stimulation on the knee, then wrapped it up and did the match.
